Spatial cognition in rodents has been extensively studied in non-naturalistic
environments such as linear or circular tracks, radial arm mazes, and T-mazes,
or small open-field arenas such as squares or cylinders of approximately
1–2 m\(^2\)  area. Such experimental conditions have allowed individual place
fields of hippocampal pyramidal neurons [1]} and the activity of
other spatial cells [2]}, [3]}, [4]}, [5]}, [6]}
to be exquisitely controlled and analyzed, leading to a
detailed neural coding account of distributed representations
that subserve spatial learning, memory, and planning in
mammals [7]}, [8]}, [9]}, [10]}, [11]}, [12]}, [13]}, [14]}, [15]}, potentially extending to general cognitive
computations in humans [16]}, [17]}. However, the
multiplicity of Poisson-distributed hippocampal place fields exposed in larger
environments [18]}, [19]} and species differences in mapping
3-dimensional contexts [20]}, [21]} suggest large and/or
complex environments as the next frontier in understanding spatial navigation.
